Programme 5: Different Dimensions

The Art Works

Title: Equivalent VIII
Artist: Carl Andre
Medium: Firebricks
Date: 1966

Equivalent VIII is made up of 120 bricks, two layers high, six deep and ten wide. When it was first exhibited it was one of eight sculptures, all made from the same number of bricks, all of which were two layers deep, but in different arrangements, thus they are equivalent but not the same.

Carl Andre (born 1935) is one of the major exponents of minimalism, and when the Tate bought Equivalent VIII in 1972 it instantly became infamous, and was cited as a byword for all that was meaningless about modern art. However Andre was trying to demonstrate that art does not need to depict anything, or stand for anything, and that it can be made from simple, unmodified forms: it is about the things themselves.

Title: Thirty Pieces of Silver
Artist: Cornelia Parker
Medium: Silver and metal
Date: 1988-89

There are a number of flattened silver objects hanging from the ceiling on nylon threads, shimmering a few inches off the floor like a mirage. The objects are arranged in 30 circles, in a five by six grid. Although the artist has taken on some of the formal concerns of minimalism there is far more to this work.

Cornelia Parker (born 1956) started making this installation with an act of destruction. Having collected a large number of silver objects she laid them out on a road and got a steamroller to run over them, thus rendering them useless. But the useless objects were then turned into art – there is an element of alchemy in her work. The title of the work refers to the 30 pieces of silver that Judas was paid to betray Jesus. This led to Christ’s death, which in turn was followed by his resurrection. In the same way, her ‘betrayal’ of the objects by rendering them useless has led to their resurrection as an artwork, floating in the gallery with an ethereal, almost spiritual aspect.

Visit the Glossary for words in bold.